Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 preview :)

[SlinkyDink]

I just installed a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 in my computer, it was annouced about a week ago, but no public reviews or even pictures so I thought I'd post a quick preview of what the drive is capable of doing. Remember that this is the lower class "Plus 8" drive (still 7200rpm, 80gig per platter), and not the "Plus 9" model (which should promise highier preformance)

DiamondMax Plus 8 picture
You cant see from the picture but the drive is not at thick as typical 3.5" drives

I disabled accoustic management manually. Its quieter than the DX740L and is basically silent.

It runs surprisingly hot considering its a single platter, single head drive. The Finger Temp Touch Test (TM) showed the drive was about as hot as my Western Digital 120gig while running :-O


As a comparison I used HDTach, and compared against Maxtor's older king the DX740L

Both drives are 40 gigs, and brand new. I'm running both of them off a Highpoint 372 controller, so ignore the high CPU usage, all the other figures are accurate.


DiamondMax Plus 8

DX740L

Wow! over 60mb at the edge of the disk!

Even the average read rate is highier than even the peak of older drives (including WD's 120JB)

Theres sure to be tons of reviews soon, so thats why I'm only posting HD Tach for those who are intestered

Now I'm just waiting on another one so I can install my Raid 0 setup with two of them

 

[GT1999]

51% CPU utilization? :Q I run off of the exact same chipset from highpoint and only get 5% with my 800JB and P4 @ 2.9GHz. Something is seriously wrong there.

 

[SlinkyDink]

Its always been 20-50%, dont know why either. Newest bios, newest drivers, fresh XP install, etc.

 

[Spicedaddy]

The +8 gets 51 MB/s average read speed vs 35MB/s for the D740X ? If that's right, then the +9 is gonna be a really nice drive...

 

[cliftonite]

Its only a 40 gig drive?

 

[Pariah]

"The +8 gets 51 MB/s average read speed vs 35MB/s for the D740X ? If that's right, then the +9 is gonna be a really nice drive... "

The +8 and +9 are the same drive except the +9 has more platters and has 8MB cache. Sort of like comparing the WD 120BB to the 120JB. The low level benchmarks should be identical.

The STR is quite impressive, though there seems to be a disturbing trend among ATA drives of slower access time with each passing generation. Is some form of acoustic management enabled on that drive? The access time is in the same range as current 5400RPM ATA drives.

 

[SlinkyDink]

Originally posted by: Spicedaddy
The +8 gets 51 MB/s average read speed vs 35MB/s for the D740X ? If that's right, then the +9 is gonna be a really nice drive...

My thoughts exactly.

Yes its only a 40 gig drive, with 1 platter and 1 head

So the Plus 9 series with multiple heads and platter should be very nice.

I havent checked for accoustic managment (probably on), I'll do that now and report back in a second.

 

[Spicedaddy]

The +8 and +9 are the same drive except the +9 has more platters and has 8MB cache. Sort of like comparing the WD 120BB to the 120JB. The low level benchmarks should be identical.

The STR is quite impressive, though there seems to be a disturbing trend among ATA drives of slower access time with each passing generation. Is some form of acoustic management enabled on that drive? The access time is in the same range as current 5400RPM ATA drives.

Ahh, I thought the +8 was 5400rpm and +9 was 7200rpm... And all Maxtor drives come with accoustic management set to /fast.



edit-- How quiet is it compared to the D740X?

 

[SlinkyDink]

Originally posted by: PariahThe STR is quite impressive, though there seems to be a disturbing trend among ATA drives of slower access time with each passing generation. Is some form of acoustic management enabled on that drive? The access time is in the same range as current 5400RPM ATA drives.

The WD 120JB drive does about 13.8ms access time, and its the current champ of 7200rpm drives (atleast until DiamondMax Plus 9, Drivezilla, or any other 80gig/platter disks come out). And accoustically its a very loud, So access latency is apparently not as important as other factors that make up for it (high rpm, cache, area density, etc, etc)

Also remember that the DiamondMax Plus 9 is rated at lower access times. It strikes me, that Diamonds new 'budget' 7200rpm is faster (atleast on transfer rates) than even the previous best 7200rpm monster (WD 120BB)

 

[WyteWatt]

I want a Maxtor HD with 12.1 ms access time like the last Maxtor HDs but with the 60000 kps maximum transfer rate, 51000 kps average transfer rate, and minimum of 27000 or 28000 kps transfer rate of the Maxtor DM 8 hard drive. Hope this is possible with the Maxtor DM 9 hard drive. Worried that the access time won't be 12.1 access time but if its 12. something that would be cool.

 

[TonyB]

Actually, the DiamondMax Plus 9 drives are already out and being built into OEM machines. If you happen to have contacts to major distributors, you are able to buy the 60GB version now. the 9's come standard with Fluid Bearing motors and 2MB cache with optional 8MB cache models and also optional SATA connectors, both of which are not released yet. I believe the ones you can get now are the 6Y060L0 models. havnt seen the 80-160GB drives yet though, but i hear they'll be out pretty soon.

 

[Pariah]

"The WD 120JB drive does about 13.8ms access time, and its the current champ of 7200rpm drives"

The JB benchmarks faster than it really is vs the competition. I'd like to see someone blind pick it our of 2 identical systems, one using the JB, one the BB. There are a number of factors that contribute towards drive performance, access time is only one of them. And as always, it depends on the applications you run. Some benefit more from high STR, others from better access time.

"So access latency is apparently not as important as other factors that make up for it (high rpm, cache, area density, etc, etc)"

True, but it often is the most important still. Compared to the DM8+ the Cheetah X15-36LP has a much lower data density, the same amount of cache, and roughly the same STR. The only difference is a significant advantage in access time. When the application benchmarks for the DM8+ come out, which drive do you think will perform better? The Cheetah will still kill it simply do to much better access time.

"It strikes me, that Diamonds new 'budget' 7200rpm is faster (atleast on transfer rates) than even the previous best 7200rpm monster (WD 120BB)"

It's not surprising at all, but expected when it spins at the same rate and has twice the areal data density of the competition. A budget 7200RPM drive doesn't spin any slower than an enterprise 7200RPM drive.

 

[Dug]

Anybody know the expected prices?

I'm really interested in the +9 version after seeing what SlinkyDink posted.

 

[WyteWatt]

http://forums.storagereview.net/viewtopic.php?t=5629&sid=1e512a4098d8f08939e485ef1211daf5

Kunal in the storagereview forum topic i posted above had some prices for the DiamondMax Plus 9 drives. Kunal is in the UK.

 

[Dug]

Has anyone answered your question or have you found out the difference between the MaxLine II and the DiamondMax Plus 8 or 9?

 

[WyteWatt]

Dug no i haven't and no one has answered it yet.

 

[Pariah]

"Has anyone answered your question or have you found out the difference between the MaxLine II and the DiamondMax Plus 8 or 9?"

I got the DM+ 9 and the Maxline Plus II mixed up in my post above. The Maxline Plus II and the DM+ 8 are the same drives, the DM+ 9 is a slightly better spec'd drive. "+" in the drives names denotes 7200RPM, regular DM is 5400RPM. The DM+ 8 uses 80 GB platters, but to reduce noise and cost only uses one side of one platter for a maximum size of 40GB. The DM+ 9 uses the same 80GB platters but is spec'd 1ms lower on access time than the DM+ 8 and has a top capacity of 160GB with optional 8MB cache. Both the +8 and +9 have 1 year warranties and come standard with fluid bearings. The MaxLine Plus II is the same drive as the +8 but uses 3 platters giving it a maximum capacity of 240GB (though the spec page says 250GB, I don't know), and comes standard with 8MB cache. MaxLine (Plus) II drives come standard with a 3 year warranty and 1,000,000 hour MTBF rating and have optional fluid bearing models.

Due to the fact all these drives appear to be using the same 80GB platters and spin at 7200RPM, they should all have the same STR results, with the +9 pulling slightly ahead in access time compared to the +8 and MaxLine Plus II.

The 5400RPM drives are slightly different, but I'll skip them since I don't think anyone is really interested in them anyway. In all, Maxtor just announced 3 new 7200RPM lines (DM+ 8, DM+ 9, MaxLine Plus II) and 3 new 5400 RPM lines (Fireball 3, DM 16, MaxLine II). Not sure they could have made it any more confusing.

Edit: It appears that Maxtor has announced so many lines that they've confused themselves. On one page the Maxline Plus II has a seek time of 10ms, on the next page it's dropped to 9.1ms. On one page the Maxline II series has 12ms seek time, then the next it's 10ms. So, it appears no even Maxtor has made up their mind on how these drives will perform. That and the odd capacites of 200GB and 250GB using 3 and 2.5 platters which works out to about 84GB/platter for one and 80 for the other.

 

[WyteWatt]

Pariah tell me about it.

So will maxtor sell a 80 gig 8 mb of cache HD with a 3 year warranty with this kind of transfer rates or faster with a little lower access time? Or at least a 160 gig one?

 

[Pariah]

"So will maxtor sell a 80 gig 8 mb of cache HD with a 3 year warranty with this kind of transfer rates or faster with a little lower access time?"

They should all have the same transfer rates. Depending on which stat page you believe on Maxtor's site, the MaxLine Plus II (3 year warranty) has either a seek time of 9.1ms which is very close to the 9ms of the +9, or it has a 10ms seek time that is the same as the +8 line.

"Or at least a 160 gig one?"

The smallest 3 year warranty 7200RPM drive is 200GB. Actually your only choices are 200GB or 250GB for 7200RPM 3 year warranty.

 

[WyteWatt]

Pariah well i hope the MaxLine Plus II 200 gig HD with a 3 year warranty will be $100 to $150. But i am guessing it will be more expersive
They should make smaller ones like 80 and 160 gigs. Don't you think?

 

[Pariah]

"i hope the MaxLine Plus II 200 gig HD with a 3 year warranty will be $100 to $150."

No shot, these drives are targetted at the enterprise market and will carry a stiff price by ATA standards. The expected MSRP for the 200GB version is $400.

 

[WyteWatt]

Pariah that sucks. Do you think the new WD HDs with 8 mb of cache with 80 gig per a platter will have just as fast of transfer rates if not faster? Also do you think the new WD will have a 12. something access time or no ? Also what sizes do you think the WD with 8 mb of cache with 80 gigs per a platter will have? I hope a 80 gig and 160 gig version.

 

[Pariah]

WD doesn't have any 80GB platter drives. Their new line is 60GB/platter. The 180GB version is currently available with a 200GB (66GB/platter) still waiting to make its appearance on shelves. The BB lines are 120/160/180/200GB, the JB lines are 120/180/200GB.

 

[WyteWatt]

Pariah thanks. Well i hope that 200 gig WD with 66 gig platters has a good transfer rate and a 12. something access time.

 

[TonyB]

just want to clear up something, all the new drives offered by Western Digital are currently on sale although on their offical website its listed as out of stock. Here are some rough street prices from pricewatch.

WD2000JB $380
WD2000BB $348
WD1800JB $321
WD1800BB $299

As for the Maxline Plus II series, expect to pay about the same prices or higher since technologically speaking they are superior, ie. 80GB platters.

What confuses me the most is why Maxtor decided to make the Maxline Plus II series as Enterprise class drives. They're basically eating into their Atlas drive sales by doing that because they're roughly cost the same. I guess they were trying to offer the kind of drive space that Seagate was for their 10.6k line but they couldnt do it at 10k so they add another platter on their DM+8 drive and call it Enterprise, i dunno.